Kitchen Update: Paint

I feel like we're finally making good progress getting our house to be more "us".  The main floor of our house, where the kitchen, dining room, and living room are, has been getting lots of love lately.  We love the results so much that we've been hosting much more than we used to.  I think now that it feels like our house, we're more comfortable inviting friends and family over.

When we moved in, we had a perfectly nice, though very Tuscan, kitchen!

The floors, appliances, cabinets, and counters were all in great shape, so it seemed silly and wasteful to replace them, even if they aren't exactly what we would choose if we were starting from scratch.  We decided to keep those big-ticket items, and work with and around them to achieve a more contemporary-looking kitchen.

The drapes came down the day we closed on the house.  I guess we're just not foofy-drapes kind of people.  I'm sure whoever bought them at Goodwill will give them the loving home they deserve.

Next up, the wallpaper.  Very high-quality, but very Tuscan.  And it kind of reminded me of camouflage.  It wasn't right for us, so it had to go.  Those same loving friends who ripped the wallpaper out of the foyer and half-bath did our kitchen, too!  Thank you Aliya and Eric!!!

And just like in those other rooms, a veritable mountain of glue was lurking behind the paper.  We scrubbed and scraped until our fingers were raw, and finally got that mess off.  Ugh, if I didn't detest wallpaper before, I sure do now!!!

Anyways.

Things were definitely looking up post-wallpaper!

We discovered that for the blinds to operate in the windows, the previous owners had removed the top piece of molding from the windows.  Without those foofy curtains, it was really obvious and pretty hideous. 

We hired a guy to replace the moldings - the news ones are thicker, with squared edges and a sill, and they look fabulous!

The walls got a good dose of sanding, putty, sanding, putty, sanding, more sanding, and finally some primer and paint!  Here's where things start looking better rather than worse!

We really hemmed and hawed over paint colors.  We wanted to subdue the orangeyness of the cabinets while keeping things light and bright, but not too bright.  I used Sherwin Williams color visualizer to go through a number of shades, but I still couldn't choose.  Eventually we just got about 1000 paint chips, pinned them up, and slowly took down any that weren't working.

Grey has been super popular lately, and it actually looked pretty good in the kitchen.  The granite has large blobs of silver in it, so we chose a color that coordinates with the granite.

I painted the walls with Sherwin Williams' Emerald brand paint, in March Wind.  I know I always say it, but I still believe it: I love Emerald Paint!!!  It covers like nothing else, is VOC-free, and is just plain fabulous.  I really can't impress upon you how important decent paint can be!  Now that I know quality paint, I'm never going back.

We're finding that since we don't have a tiled backsplash, stuff gets on the painted walls now and again.  Not a problem, I just wipe it off!  Love that paint!

So here we are, time for the reveal!

They grey turned out so great!  It's made the space feel much more clean and contemporary.

OK, one more before and after, just for fun.

Along the way, we removed the orangey wood blinds (and are hoping a neighbor with the same windows wants them).  We're kind of showing the kitchen to the world right now, so I've been busy putting together new window coverings!  Stay tuned :)